Protag Duet

The Protag Duet is a Bluetooth device that is paired with a smartphone
to prevent one from misplacing valuables

The Protag Duet is a Bluetooth tracking device that can be attached to valuables to prevent loss of the article. When paired with a smartphone, the alarm on the Duet goes off if it is separated from the smartphone by more than a set distance. In this way, one can immediately retrieve items that have been misplaced.

One can also use the PROTAG Trace online system and the mobile application to find misplaced items, such as mobile phones. The PROTAG Trace online system can be used to remotely activate a lost mobile phone’s camera, allowing the owner to find its location and identify the person who had taken the phone.

This video shows how the Protag Duet is tagged to a mobile phone

Another version of the device, the Protag Elite, is a thin, credit-card sized gadget for slotting into wallets and passports. The products are sold in 10 countries, and the developers are looking to apply to Apple for iBeacon certification, which is Apple’s trademark for small, cheap Bluetooth transmitters made by third-party manufacturers.

The Protag devices were developed by Tan Yen Soon and Lim Zhi Wei of Innova Technology Pte Ltd. Red Dot Ventures invested S$589,000 in the company in 2012, through NRF’s Technology Incubation Scheme.